View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0022479 | AI War 2 | GUI | Jan 2, 2020 8:05 am | Jan 2, 2020 10:54 pm | |
| Reporter | Fluffiest | Assigned To | |||
| Status | new | Resolution | open | ||
| Product Version | 1.025 Hotfix | ||||
| Summary | 0022479: Display "likely wave composition" on tooltips | ||||
| Description | Apparently, AI planets tend to send waves with a particular composition - for example, one planet might be prone to sending waves of Sentinel Gunboats. I only learned this when someone mentioned it off-hand in the Discord; it's not in-game anywhere at all that I can see, and apparently the only way to learn a planet's wave composition is to get hit by a wave from that planet. This information should be displayed in the following places: * The high-detail tooltip of AI planets in the galaxy view. * The low-detail tooltip of the warp gate in the planet view. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
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I'm not really super stoked about this, honestly, because mainly it's a matter of learning the patterns and knowing to watch. I guess we could show this, but it feels like peeking at the cards of the opponent in a card game. THAT said, I guess I could also see the opposite argument that when you're going through and killing warp gates for various border planets, the different compositions would be one thing that would help you choose which ones to leave alone. So I do like it from that end. A lot. Wow, I'm really torn because I both really like and really dislike the idea at the same time. ;) Maybe it needs to be an option for people. I'm kind of leaning towards showing it like you suggest, though, because it would aid in strategy and people aren't always THAT surprised by whatever comes in general. And to some extent invisible game mechanics might as well not exist. |
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I don't really like this; it makes the AI less mysterious. |
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Is the AI being "mysterious" a feature, or should the AI be predictable and readable enough to make strategic decisions around? Currently, you can already get this information, once the planet sends a wave at you. But you have to wait for that to happen, and you have to have the Secret Knowledge that wave types are tied to the planet they come from. I'm not a fan of Secret Knowledge in games; and AIW2 in particular already has a lot for new players to learn. Personally, the way I'd fix this is to make it a game settings toggle. Two options: 1) Wave types are tied to the origin planet like in the current version, and you can see what waves a planet will be sending once you've captured a planet adjacent to it. The player has the maximum amount of strategic information right at their fingertips. 2) Wave types are NOT tied to the origin planet. The AI feels more mysterious, and there's no hidden way to control what waves you can expect to see. |
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Mysterious AI is a feature to some, and something that others don't like as much. Personally I like it in some places but not others. If the AI has no surprises it can never surprise you, which is a problem because you won't likely lose. But if the AI is inscrutable then that's annoying. |
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"2) Wave types are NOT tied to the origin planet. The AI feels more mysterious, and there's no hidden way to control what waves you can expect to see." It used to be completely random but had problems in that player defenses tended to be "everything on the menu" because the AI could send "anything on the menu". If people want some mystery, the Adaptive AI will change the groups planets send. |
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Makes sense. If you want to keep the possibility of a surprise without needlessly obscuring information, how about the tooltip displays the wave type but only after you've had a wave from that planet? Before that, it could display "wave type: unknown". |
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I'm not sure how large of a pool of units the AI is drawing from for a given planet, but lets imagine a tooltip like "The AI will send waves from this planet containing some combination of these 6-8 unit types", and every planet has that tooltip. How will this make the game more fun? |
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x4000 already answered that one. When you're killing warp gates outside your territory to reduce attack vectors, you can use the wave composition information to strategize. Focus on killing off the gates that send the units you have the most trouble with. Making informed, clever strategic decisions is fun. RocketAssistedPuffin gave another answer: If you don't know what the AI can send, your defences have to be "everything on the menu". Once you know what the AI can send, you can strategise and defend against that thing. If you're worried about information overload, the tooltip only needs to be displayed for AI planets adjacent to player planets. |
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The way I could be okay with this is if the information displayed is only "these are the ship types the AI has sent against you from this planet". Then it's all information you could know in game. |
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I tweaked where I think the info should be displayed. |
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RE the AI being mysterious & invisible game mechanics not existing: I didn't know this was a mechanic and never noticed anything abnormal about wave compositions, I assumed it was just standard RNG being RNG. It very much was an invisible mechanic that didn't exist. And it's not like I haven't played the game. |
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Yep, I'm aware of the invisible mechanics thing. I forget about this one myself because it's relatively recent (six months?) and it and the first game worked so differently for so many years. So it's even kinda invisible to me despite me being the one to code it in. |
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I think it could be fair for this to be a use for hacking. So, you got to your allied planet and do a 5-cost "Reveal Nearby Enemy Ship Manufacturing" hack, which will then reveal the information of the wave types coming from all the planets adjacent to the one you did the hack on. |
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Maybe also make AIP go up by 1 if you want to restrict people spamming it, would make thematic sense |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2, 2020 8:05 am | Fluffiest | New Issue | |
| Jan 2, 2020 9:17 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0055247 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 9:23 am | BadgerBadger | Note Added: 0055248 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 9:54 am | Fluffiest | Note Added: 0055254 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 10:54 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0055262 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 11:01 am | RocketAssistedPuffin | Note Added: 0055263 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 11:02 am | RocketAssistedPuffin | Note Edited: 0055263 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 11:03 am | Fluffiest | Note Added: 0055264 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 12:58 pm | BadgerBadger | Note Added: 0055269 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 1:09 pm | Fluffiest | Note Added: 0055271 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 1:51 pm | BadgerBadger | Note Added: 0055273 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 2:56 pm | Fluffiest | Description Updated | |
| Jan 2, 2020 2:57 pm | Fluffiest | Description Updated | |
| Jan 2, 2020 2:57 pm | Fluffiest | Note Added: 0055278 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 8:52 pm | Flypaste | Note Added: 0055295 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 10:13 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0055298 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 10:53 pm | Flypaste | Note Added: 0055299 | |
| Jan 2, 2020 10:54 pm | Flypaste | Note Added: 0055300 |
